The Guidebook to Historic Places in Western Pennsylvania of 1938 conjectures that at the core of this house is a 1795 gristmill. The supposition is based on the serial linear arrangement of the doors on the south elevation and an arch on the east elevation that appears to have accommodated a millrace. If the three stories banked down the hillside are mill construction, then a full two-and-one-half-story, five-by-three-bay house rises above them, making this a five-story stone structure on the south elevation. Wide interior end chimneys distinguish the building. The stonework, which has a mottled appearance as it varies between light and dark stone, is smaller and more regular in its coursing in the gable end, unlike the stonework below. The combined house and mill was so large, it was called “Snyder's Folly.”